Apr 29, 2015

With TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival) around the corner, the city is abuzz with talk of graphic novels, comics, and zines. It seems like there are a million comic-related happenings right now and one of those events happened last night. It was the Toronto stop for artist Jillian Tamaki’s book tour, as she promotes her latest publication, SuperMutant Magic Academy. I had enough sense to go to her talk and she was charming, funny, and awesome.

In an industry that has been notoriously sexist, Jillian creates gorgeous work that is mostly about women and is being celebrated for it. Her last book, This One Summer that she made with her cousin Mariko Tamaki won the Governor General’s Award, she's in the middle of this book tour, and she’s a featured guest at TCAF this year.

On top of being an incredible illustrator and cartoonist, Jillian is a teacher and one thing she touched on last night stuck with me in a lesson-y way. She said, don’t wait until your work is perfect to put it out in the world. Figure it out in front of everyone and keep trying to make it better.

If you are a fan of graphic novels you probably already know her work. If you haven't read much but have always wanted to, pick up one of her books. I promise you won't regret it.